Domesticity
by ThisPhoenix
Summary: I distinctly remember saying to Rose “I Don’t Do Domestic” and yet here I am driving our kids to school, taking the rubbish out as I go. “This is Rose Tyler calling the Torchwood hub,are you receiving?” Things have changed, 16yrs on JE Spoiers
1. Chapter 1

The sun streams into our living room; it's bright and airy and reminds me oddly of Reinette, I'm not sure why, maybe it's the

The sun streams into our living room; it's bright and airy and reminds me oddly of Reinette, I'm not sure why, maybe it's the seventeenth century sideboard that's probably not seventeenth century because it feel out of space when the Nessnajab clan left. I walk over to my wife, I put my arms around her and lean down and kiss her. Even after sixteen years she amazes me, she's still in her pyjamas and her hair is a mess but she is the most beautiful woman in the universe. In all the universe's.

As she pulls out of our embrace I push some of her hair out of her face and smile. For a few seconds we just stare content that we have forever. And then she walks over to the computer,

"I'm just going to try getting through to Jack again," she explains, even though I already know what she's doing, we've been going through this routine for just over a year.

I walk over and put my hands on her neck hoping for what must be the millionth time that this will work. Hating myself for knowing that it won't.

"This is Rose Tyler calling the Torchwood hub, Cardiff, are you receiving?" Rose says into the microphone while looking at an empty screen she looked up at me as I rub her neck; we exchange a sad look when we get no reply.

"Come on, let's get some breakfast, for all we know Jack's just being lazy and none of them have got there yet, we'll try again tonight." I say as we walk in to the kitchen and see our sixteen year old daughter fixing herself a banana smoothie,

"Or maybe they're all dead," our daughter says taking a huge slurp giving herself a moustache

"So cheerful Donna. Get some proper breakfast, you've got your exams today." I say taking on the role of protective father.

"I can't eat anything else dad, if I do I'll be sick I'm so nervous." My daughter says. I still like thinking that even after sixteen years and five children I still like thinking 'My Daughter' or 'My Son' and not have to worry about them being killed by alien's or something like that. Well of course we still do get the occasional alien invasion, but what with me and Rose working for Torchwood, there is always somewhere safe for them to go.

Now all I have to worry about is perverts, thief's, murderers, rapist's, car accidents, boyfriends, girlfriends, teenage pregnancy's, exams, nappies, illness, broken bones, drugs, anorexia, suicide, depression, self-harming, alcohol poisoning, contraception, obesity, education, cancer, violence on video games, violence in real life, traffic, food poisoning, economy, mortgages, vaccinations, road accidents, mugging's. Oh my god why did we have children.

Rose comes over to me holding toast out to me, I think she's been saying something to me, should I answer her, what should I say, oh no now she's going to know I wasn't listening. I start eating the toast as a distraction. Oh now she's talking to Donna, oh that's okay. I do that a lot, start thinking about something totally random while having a conversation.

Just then Mickey comes in, our fourteen year old son, grabbing a piece of toast off the pile and starting on his French homework.

"Why haven't you done that yet Mickey, when I signed your planner you said you'd done it?" Rose says taking on the role of angry mother, although she's not really angry.

"Umm," Mickey mutters then stuffs toast in his mouth so he doesn't have to answer.

We all laugh and Rose leaves to get Jack, Sarah-Jane and Harriet ready for school. Jack is eight and can do most things himself, Sarah-Jane is six and still needs help not getting herself in a twist when she is trying to get her t-shirt on and Harriet is four and can barely get a pare of trousers on with out getting in a mess.

"Dad," Mickey says through his toast, "How do you say, what colour is the umbrella?"

"I'm not supposed to help you with your homework, you do to well and then the teacher knows it wasn't you who did it. Donna you help him, I'm going to go see if your mother needs any help."

Donna laughs as Mickey groans and I step in the hallway and lean my back on the door. I think back to the day when the doctor left us in this world. I stopped thinking of myself of the doctor when Donna was born, she was born just over nine months after we were left here and Rose and I were married a month later. After that I became Doctor John Tyler, works for Torchwood, has a wife plus five kids, and am living the happy ever after story. I guess that is true, we still save the world on a regular bases but I wouldn't say we have a normal family life. All of the children but Harriet have been bungee jumping, we still get a thrill factor, even if it doesn't involve running from aliens every day.

Rose was so distant that first day, after he shut the doors and we were left on the beach I was sure she didn't want me, but she came up to me, raised her hand to my cheek, "Forever, right?" she asked me and I all I could do was nod, I hugged her and kissed her and I didn't want to put her down. And then Jackie comes and reminds us that although we might be warm she's bloody freezing and that we _do_ have forever so let's get the hell out of there.

Rose comes down the stairs with Harriet, Sarah-Jane and Jack trailing behind her.

"You alright?" she asks as she passes me,

"Yeah, just thinking," I say, still distant

"Oh, never a good idea with you." She says grinning as I follow her into the kitchen again.

Jack, Sarah and Harriet are tucking into bowls of cereal and plates of toast just as Donna and Mickey have finished and they are all mucking about. I hear stories about brothers and sisters who hate each other and don't get along at all, but this lot are great.

"Right you two," Rose says to Mickey and Donna "You better get off, your dads driving you today."

"Am I? I thought you were taking them today, and I was doing the primary school run?"

"Does it look like I'm taking them today," she gestures at her pyjamas and I get her point.

"Right you are love, I'll see at lunch, Rocci's right?" I say as I lean down and kiss her tasting the jam on toast she's eating. She nods and turns to help Harriet with her cereal.

"Right you horrible lot, I'll see you all later, lets get going you two," I direct the later to Donna and Mickey while leaning down and giving a kiss to the others.

They stand up and get their bags together and we go out to the car waving hello to Mrs. Davis as we pass and I wonder at the Domesticity of it all. I remember repeatedly saying to Rose "I Don't Do Domestic" and here I am driving our kids to school and taking the rubbish out as I go.

The day passes quickly, I go into work, greeting Arian the receptionist on my way past and I go up to the weekly meeting with my department head. I work in the, well what we basically do is fiddle with stuff that we have found, try to make it work, and try to make it safe. I think the higher ups get a bit annoyed with us sometimes, we don't like making weapons and we don't often make anything useful, if my father-in-law wasn't head of Torchwood I think I'd be working else where.

At lunch I rush to meet Rose and we have a nice lunch at the Italian restaurant round the corner from torchwood, before we go back to work. I'm not quite sure what she does, something to do with other universe's, that's how we got the computer link with the other universes torchwood, they wouldn't let her work on it there so she brought it home.

We drive home at three o'clock, taking most of our work with us, we like being home when the kids get out of school and it's mostly only paper work or a bit of tinkering by now.

Me and Rose start working on the link with Torchwood in the Doctors universe. She goes through the "This is Rose Tyler" Business as I start tinkering with the sonic screwdriver I made from bits and pieces that have fallen to earth over the years.

"Hey hey we've got a picture," Rose shouts just as Donna and Mickey walk through the door with Sarah-Jane, Jack and Harriet in tow. They all rush into the living room as we start screaming at the computer screen. They know about our past life, we never kept it a secret and they ask questions about our adventures all the time, they definitely got the best bed time stories. Everyone is screaming at the computer screen. Hoping against hope that someone will come.

"Just a minute, every one be quiet, lets try and hear if there's any one there" I say loudly and we all shut up as Mickey turns the speakers up. We can hear talking in the background and we all start yelling again.

Finally we hear someone fiddling with the microphone on the other side and Jack comes into view

"Rose, Doctor, what the hell?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Rose, Doctor, what the hell

"Rose, Doctor, what the hell?" I manage to yell when I finally get the picture up on the computer from where all the shouting is coming from.

I can see seven people on the screen, two of which I know should not be there, the other five I'm guessing should not be there. The Doctor (I think it's the human one) and Rose are standing surrounded by five children whose ages must range from five to sixteen.

"Oh my God we did it, we did it!" Rose starts screaming and the doctor pulls her into a hug and kisses her hard and when they finally come up for they start dancing around with the kids.

"Excuse me, I'm still here, so would you like to explain what's going on, 'cause last I heard you were stuck on a parallel universe." I shout

"Oh yeah, sorry Jack, you lot shut up," The Doctor shouts at what must be his kids.

"Thankyou, you may begin," I say folding my arms "actually you may not, I'll be right back," I say jumping up again and I run down from my office on to the balcony, "Oi you lot," I shout down my team "Yeah you lot, the ones who work for me, get to the conference room, you might want to see this, Mickey can you link my computer up to the big screen?" I shout quickly, they get going and soon we're all sitting around the table, and Rose starts to talk.

"Mickey! You work for Jack, you Mickey," Rose laughs and so does the doctor

"Nice to see you to," Mickey says

"Sorry, how are you? Are you married yet?" Rose asks calming down a bit

"Married, Rose I'm twenty three, it's only been two years since we saw you," Mickey replies

"Seriously, two years? It's been sixteen here?" The doctor replies perplexed

"Right, why don't you two explain what's going on." I say trying to take charge.

Rose starts to speak

"Okay, so as you might or might not already know, the Time Lord Doctor decided it would be a right nice idea to dump us – that is me and the Human Doctor and my mum"

"_Her mum,_ can you imagine being stranded on a beach for hours with _her mum" _The Doc interrupts

"Thankyou, so anyway he dumps us there and we're like, oh dear, we're stuck here, but eventually we get off the beach and out of Norway, you don't really need to know that bit. So we get back to England and you can imagine what going on, well let's just say Donna was born nine months late, a few months after that somehow he somehow persuades me to marry him. By this time we're both working for torchwood,"

"Gods know why," the doctor buts in

"Hey you like your job," Rose turns to him, the kids sigh, like this is an on going thing

"Sure I do,"

"Not that you actually work, all you is tinker with stuff and never get anything done,"

"I made the sonic screwdriver, and the solar lighting that works even if there's no sun,"

"You did not make that; you just modified it a bit,"

"How do you know, what do you no about the planet of the Lerdanous?"

"_You _took me there" Rose says triumphantly and grins.

"Sorry to interrupt, but you haven't exactly explained how you are talking to us." Gwen says

Rose looks back to the screen in surprise as if she has forgotten we're all there.

"Oh yeah, sorry," she says "So anyway it's sixteen years after we got left here, we now five kids, oh shall we do introductions,"

All of us on the other side start nodding, so the kids arrange themselves in age order.

"This is Donna, she's sixteen," Rose says,

"I can talk you know," Donna says quickly

"Okay then, for fear of looking like the Von Trapp's tell them your names and stuff" the doctor says before Rose can say anything

"You know who the Von Trapp's are Doctor?" I ask laughing at the Domesticity of it

"I have seen Sound of Music, Thankyou very much," he retorts

"Well I met them, beat that, that Maria is Feisty!"

"So any way, I'm Donna, I'm Sixteen and mum said that when we get through to you I wasn't to let you flirt with me but I don't think I'd mind." The blonde says confidently and we all laugh.

"Well I wouldn't mind either, but I think your dad might," I respond and they look up to see their dad growling lightly

"Stop it,"

"I'm only saying, plus believe it or not, I've settled down," I say grabbing Ianto and hugging him too me.

Rose and the Doctor both laugh, and Donna looks put out.

The oldest boy comes forward now.

"Hey, I'm Mickey; I'm fourteen and is it true that you defeated the slitheen with pickled eggs? I'm mean seriously Eggs?" he says, he has dark hair and is taller than Rose, nearly as tall as his older sister.

Mickey on this side speaks up

"Well technically speaking-"

"Mickey the idiot speaks technically, that's a first," The doctor buts in

"Hey, anyway, it was the vinegar, luckily I had lots of pickles in that week, otherwise you would not have a grandmother, or a namesake for that matter. Thanks for that by the way" Mickey says, directing the last to Rose

"Anything for my favourite idiot," The doctor buts in before she can say anything.

"My turn," the youngest boy barges up to the screen, "I'm Jack and I'm eight and I'm you," he says pointing straight at me.

"Jack Junior, it's me, mini me, little me, Jack the second, there's another little me!" I jump up and shout, mostly for little me's benefit.

Everyone laughs and we start dancing madly, until one of the younger girls comes up to the screen

"I'm Sarah-Jane, I'm six and I can say Raxa, Roxo Raxacoricofallapatorius!" The blonde girl says triumphantly

"Well done sweet-"Martha starts

"Oh please, I could say Raxacoricofallapatorius when I was four-"Donna starts

"I'm four" The youngest girl pipes up

"The real question is can you say The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe" Donna states looking challengingly at her younger siblings.

"The mighty Jag, The mighty jagr-"Sarah starts

"The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe" The youngest child states proudly

"And you are?" I ask the little lady

"I'm Harriet, I'm four and I can say the might Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I also know what the square root of pie is"

"What is it?" I ask

"1.77245385090551595385060386978284673747309293829108902983019890983879873928479098789787874873758974389577877689201010293749693749393995883177245385090551590….."

"Wow" I say "You got yourself a super kid there Doctor,"

The doctor opens his mouth to reply but Martha cuts him off

"So, umm nice meeting you all, and nice seeing you two again, but you still haven't explained how we're talking to you," Martha says

"Sorry," Rose says, although she doesn't look sorry "So, as I said, we both work for torchwood, him playing around with stuff and me actually doing some work,"

"I still don't know what you do," The doctor says thoughtfully

"Universe stuff remember. Anyway any way I started getting these odd readings on my computer, then my computer started intercepting e-mails and stuff, I investigated to see if it was coming from any of the other departments, Cardiff torchwood shutdown ten years ago when Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper were killed. About a year ago I started hearing voices coming from the computer, from your hub, that's when I first knew it was your hub. Torchwood wanted me to stop working on it, so I brought it home. We've been working on it for over a year, a couple of times we've gotten a picture but no sound and vice versa, oh and by the way I've seen some interesting things, Mickey, Martha. So anyway I've been trying to get through to you, and now finally we have."

"What's going to happen now, I mean are the walls of the universe's collapsing or what?" Gwen asks

"I don't know, I mean we did checks, we wouldn't of continued with any of this if we didn't think it was safe. But we do, as long as we don't actually try and get through to your universe I think we're all right." Rose says

"So we can call you and chat when ever, this is cool" Mickey grins

"Are you going to try and contact the Doctor," I ask

Every ones goes quiet. The kids look up at their parents and quickly down at the floor. Roses hand shifts from Mickey's shoulder to the Doctors hand and the Doctors other arm wraps around her waist.

"He might be hard to track," The Doctor starts "And it might be kind of odd seeing myself again after sixteen years, I can't say I really liked that, but I think we can try, right" he says turning his head to smile at Rose and she leans forwards and kisses him.

"I love you," He whispers and she gives him an odd look, as do all the kids. She opens her mouth to start to say something, but he shakes his head and gives her a look that says they'll talk later.

Turning towards the screen again the doctor says "Like I said, it will be hard to track the Doctor, we'll have to start somewhere a bit easier," at this he stoops down and picks Sarah-Jane up "How about we call up Mr Smith, and Sarah-Jane?"

A/N. So hope you liked that Chap, there will be another coming soon. I'm also planning to do some spin offs which I will call the Snapshot Series, you can guess what they will be about.

By the By, The Square Root of Pie is correct up untill the secoond nine, after that I Made it up.

Disclaimer. I Don't Own any of the Character apart from the Children, they belong to the gods at the BBC.


	3. Chapter 3

Things are tense between Rose and me since I told her I loved her

Things are tense between Rose and me since I told her I loved her. Jack and the others on the screen probably thought nothing of it when I whispered those three words to her, but that was the first time I've said them, the first time I have put I at the start of that sentence instead of we.

We said our goodbyes to Jack and the others, them promising to get in touch with Sarah-Jane, and us promising that we would talk to them soon. We stood in silence for a moment none of us looking at each other, until Donna spoke up,

"Harriet, you've got play group haven't you, I'll drop you at Lisa's she can take you, Sarah, why don't you next door and see Isi? Jack why don't you go over to the park and play some football? Mickey why don't you go and see Becky? You've been neglecting her lately." She says quickly and all the children file out quickly, all of them looking at their feet, not talking.

Rose looks at me expectedly and I don't know what to say, I just pace trying formulating a reply that I know isn't going to come easily.

She opens her mouth then closes it again then opens it "Why did" then she stops "Will you at least look at me!" she yells, she still has traces of her London accent even though we haven't lived there for ten years. I've got my back to her; I stay planted on the spot with my hands in my pockets. I can hear her breathing heavily, I can hear the thud of my one heart, I have always had a heightened sense of hearing when I get angry.

"Why did you say that?" she asks and I feel like I could cry, in fact I know I will cry, because I know now that even after sixteen years she never stopped loving _him_.

"Isn't obvious? I said it because _I _love you. I said it because you're _my _wife. I said it because _I _was the one who held your hand while you gave birth five times. Because _I'm _the one who goes to parents evening's. Because _I'm_ the one who holds your hand and tells you it's all going to be okay. Because _I'm _the one who kisses you goodnight and kisses you in the morning and wants to be kissing you at every other minute of the day." My voice breaks as I say this and I can feel tears running down my face, I take a step nearer to her and start tracing her face with my fingers, and she closes her eyes,

"I said it because when I look at our children I see you and I see _him_ and that kills me. I said it because I never got to show you amazing things, I never got to see your face light up when you see something new and know it was me who made that happen.

I said it because _I'm _the one who holds you at night after we've made love, knowing you're not truly mine and it breaks my heart, my one heart." I say and I turn away knowing I shouldn't touch her, she is not mine, I may be the father of her children, I may be her husband, but she doesn't love me. Or she may love me, but she loves him more, and she can't live with out knowing, without hearing everyday that he loves her too.

"I love you" her voice is soft and sweet, so familiar to me. She raises her hand to my shoulder, but it falls after a second,

"Which me?" I ask, sounding almost harsh, willing myself not to turn around

"Both of you, all of you" she says, still soft, still sweet.

"But I'm not him Rose," I give into myself and turn around to face her again, instantly wishing I didn't, because even though she has tears running down her face she is the most beautiful person I have ever known "why can't you see that? I am so different to him?" I shout, "I can't stand it Rose, I can't keep saying 'We Love You', I am not him Rose" I'm still shouting, I think this is the first argument we've had over something serious, something that wasn't over where to go on holiday, or whether or not we should get a cat. We didn't get a cat. I'm not a cat person. Literally.

When she doesn't say anything I don't know what to do. She's still crying and looking at her hands now, they're shaking. I don't think I've ever seen her hands shake. "Look at me Rose," I say tenderly, but she doesn't, "Look at me," but still she doesn't, and I walk up to her and raise her chin up so that she is forced to look at me.

"When I told you on that beach that we love you, I meant it Rose, I meant it forever. I just didn't think I would have to keep saying it forever."

"What do you want Rose?" I ask my voice barley a whisper, praying she'll say she wants me.

"I don't know" she says her voice even quieter than mine and my heart that has already been broken and stuck back together enough times today brakes all over again and it is all I can do not to bring my arm back to hit her.

"Do you want this life? This life watching our children grow up, going to work everyday, being able to see your parents whenever you like, growing old with me?" I ask quietly "Or do you still want him? Do you still want to be travelling the universe, seeing odd worlds, growing old as he stays young?"

"I want," she starts, but she falters "I want to talk to him."

"That's going to be hard, we'll need to get through to Sarah-Jane first, and then Mr. Smith can help us find him and I guess Torchwood will be able to help us." My voice is flat and emotionless; I turn towards the computer and start working. I want to get this sorted; I want her to sort her self out as soon as possible.

As I squat down behind the computer to start fiddling with wires she comes over to help.

"Will you go, please." I say so quietly I'm not sure she heard me, but she must have because she stands up again and leaves the room, when she opens the door she finds Donna standing there. Donna looks at me and Rose just walks past her and out the front door, I see her walk past the window and down the street.

"Come and help me Donna." I say my voice still flat and empty.

"What are we doing?" she asks walking over

"Like you didn't hear." I say, and if looks could kill she'd be dead, but she sits down at the computer and starts working.

"She wants you dad."

"I'm not so sure sweetheart."

A/N Sorry it's short, it's was really hard to write, Rose was really hard to write in the chap, she was being really mean and I wanted her to be nice, but that was not meant to be. Hope you enjoyed please review!!


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